Drew McManus

"I hear that every time you show up to work with an orchestra, people get fired." Those were the first words out of an executive's mouth after her board chair introduced us. That executive is now a dear colleague and friend but the day that consulting contract began with her orchestra, she was convinced I was a hatchet-man brought in by the board to clean house. I understand where the trepidation comes from as a great deal of my consulting and technology provider work for arts organizations involves due diligence, separating fact from fiction, interpreting spin, as well as performance review and oversight. So yes, sometimes that work results in one or two individuals "aggressively embracing career change" but far more often than not, it reinforces and clarifies exactly what works and why. In short, it doesn't matter if you know where all the bodies are buried if you can't keep your own clients out of the ground, and I'm fortunate enough to say that for more than 15 years, I've done exactly that for groups of all budget size from Qatar to Kathmandu. For fun, I write a daily blog about the orchestra business, provide a platform for arts insiders to speak their mind, keep track of what people in this business get paid, help write a satirical cartoon about orchestra life, hack the arts, and love a good coffee drink.

Get On Board

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Work caught up with me this weekend so I wasn’t able to complete what I had planned for today. Instead of leaving the blog empty today I thought it would be good to revisit a popular article from September, 2004 which examines how individuals actually find their way into an orchestra’s board of directors. Within the governance framework of a 501c3, the board of directors has absolute authority and control; meaning, …

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Remembering Who’s Who

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After posting the Lost But Not Forgotten Update earlier this week, I received a note from a middle manager that used to work at one of the ensembles which went entirely out of business. They wanted to point out that the middle managers and staffers within their orchestra received one of a few options after the bankruptcy proceedings concluded: nothing or up to a quarter of their promised vacation pay…

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…Just Don’t Look Down

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The recent news that the Honolulu Symphony will receive a $4 million matching grant from the state of Hawaii is welcome relief for an organization that has been skating on thin ice as of late. How thin? At the end of 2003, the musicians accepted a 20% across the board pay cut in order to stave off bankruptcy. Since then the organization cut their executive director loose, undergone a board split, and recently lost their interim executive director after disagreements over the search process and day-to-day administrative issues…

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Lost But Not Forgotten Update

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The Lost But Not Forgotten section has been updated. In particular, a recent settlement surrounding the former Florida Philharmonic leaves the musicians with approximately $0.22 for every dollar they should have been paid as creditors in the bankruptcy proceedings. Read more about that situation and as well as updates for the other ensembles at Lost But Not Forgotten. As a reminder, the Lost But Not Forgotten page is always featured in …

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Great Expectations

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I’m moderating a Virtual Discussion Panel this week at Polyphonic.org about the expectations vs. realities of winning and maintaining a position in a professional orchestra. Of course, it wouldn’t be quite as interesting if the panelists were all professional musicians, it would end up sounding more like preaching to the choir. Instead, the eight member panel is divided into a number of unique groups…

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